Tankard tries new format

The men’s provincial curling championship begins Wednesday in Huntsville with a new format being used to determine Ontario’s representative at the Regina Brier in March.

Skip Greg Balsdon and his Cataraqui Golf and Country Club-based team is ranked in the top four of the 12-team Ontario Tankard field.

The top two rankings belong to Peterborough’s John Epping, playing out of Leaside, and Glenn Howard, now playing out of Toronto St. George’s.

Howard has won the last two Ontario titles and in total has gone to the Brier 17 times. Epping, considered one of the best skips in the country, has yet to go to a Brier. Howard beat him out last year.

Balsdon, with Kingston’s Jon Beuk and Napanee’s Scott Chadwick and third Don Bowser of Peterborough, hopes to land a berth in Sunday’s final at 2:30 p.m. at the Canada Summit Centre.

Balsdon won the 2014 trip to the Brier when he skipped a different team out of Hamilton’s Glendale Golf and Country Club. Chadwick, Beuk and Bowser have never played at the Brier.

There is an expanded field to contend with at the Tankard and the playing format is no longer a round-robin with the teams posting the top records advancing to the Page system playoff.

Instead, the teams will play a triple-knockout competition to qualify for the playoffs.

Balsdon, Howard, Epping and London Highland’s Codey Maus (Cataraqui member Wes Forget is at second) are advanced out in the draw to a spot from where three wins will secure the first berth in the Page 1-2 game on Saturday.

Balsdon will play Wednesday night at 7:30 against the winner between Mark Kean of Woodstock (the 2015 champion) and Michael McLean of Navan.

Kean and McLean are in a group of eight teams that play their first games Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

There are three components to the triple-knockout draw. The undefeated team on the ‘A’ side goes to the Page 1-2 final on Saturday.

The losing team of the ‘A’ final drops to the semifinal round of the ‘B’ bracket, where two wins would secure the other berth in the Page 1-2 game.

The two teams in the Page 3-4 playoff game will come out of the ‘C’ bracket, which is comprised of teams that have had two losses.